Since at least 2008, the NSA has used a
secret channel of radio waves transmitted from covertly installed
computer hardware to monitor about 100,000 computers around the world, allowing the spy agency access to the computers even if they aren't connected to the internet.

The hacked computers, in addition to
being regularly monitored, could also be used to launch a
cyberattack, according to a New York Times article partially based on NSA
documents provided by Edward Snowden.

The New York Times is reporting that members of China's most advanced hacking group have been…
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Quantum has also been used against the
Russian military, Mexican police groups and drug cartels, and the
governments of US allies like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and India. There's no evidence it's been used against targets in the United
States.

"What's new here is the scale and
the sophistication of the intelligence agency's ability to get into
computers and networks to which no one has ever had access before," James Andrew Lewis, the cybersecurity expert at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told the New York
Times.

From the Times:

One [hacking tool], called Cottonmouth I, looks like a
normal USB plug but has a tiny transceiver buried in it. According to
the catalog, it transmits information swept from the computer
"through a covert channel" that allows "data infiltration and
exfiltration." Another variant of the technology involves tiny
circuit boards that can be inserted in a laptop computer — either
in the field or when they are shipped from manufacturers — so that
the computer is broadcasting to the N.S.A. even while the computer's
user enjoys the false confidence that being walled off from the
Internet constitutes real protection.

The relay station it communicates with,
called Nightstand, fits in an oversize briefcase, and the system can
attack a computer "from as far away as eight miles under ideal
environmental conditions." It can also insert packets of data in
milliseconds, meaning that a false message or piece of programming
can outrace a real one to a target computer. Similar stations create
a link between the target computers and the N.S.A., even if the
machines are isolated from the Internet.

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Not all of this information is new:
Some details of the program have been published in German and Dutch
papers. And the New York Times claims to have known about at least
part of the program since 2012, when it reported on the U.S.-led
Stuxnet hacking attack on Iran. The Times said it withheld
the information at the request of American intelligence officials.

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The NSA, of course, is defending the
program.

"N.S.A.'s activities are focused and
specifically deployed against — and only against — valid foreign
intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements,"
Vanee Vines, an agency spokeswoman, said in a statement. "We do not use foreign intelligence capabilities to
steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of — or give
intelligence we collect to — U.S. companies to enhance their
international competitiveness or increase their bottom line."